25 May – 25 June 2018

The paintings in A Few Good Women are visual expressions of culture by some of the Martumili Artists community’s leading artists. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see works by Judith Samson, , Bugai Whyoulter, Ngamaru Bidu, Jakayu Biljabu and Nora Nungabar (deceased) hung alongside one another. The paintings are a form of cross-cultural communication that educates viewers on the artists’ local landscapes and topography.

As Kim Mahood writes, the Indigenous peoples of Martumili do not need a map to traverse their country because the landscape, which appears harsh and formless to uninitiated eyes, is as familiar to them as the suburban backyard does to a metropolitan home owner. The land can be characterised as a “domestic geography.” Its forms and requisite uses are an innate part of the cosmologies and cultures of these Indigenous peoples. The landscape is an instantly recallable, innately familiar entity: “country was born from story.”*

The works represent a landscape that is loaded with cultural, spiritual, and utilitarian meanings. There is the recalling through the paintings of that which is intimately known by the artists. This act of remembering is continuously innovated by the development of the artists’ styles, and this broadens the visual terms of this remembrance. Exhibitions such as Women of Martu do not only present works which represent acts of memory making. There is also a showcasing of how these artists experiment with memory’s visual expression to enable the exporting of their culture throughout Australia and the world.

* For more information see Kim Mahood, “Why the Martu Don’t Need a Map,” in We Don’t Need a Map: A Martu Experience of the Western Desert, eds. Erin Coates and Gabrielle Sullivan (Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre, 2012.

Bugai Whyoulter / Untitled 2015 / 91cm x 91cm

BUGAI WHYOUTLER

Bugai was born at Pukayiyirna, on present-day Balfour Downs Station, though her parents soon traveled northward with her through Jigalong and Nullagine toward Kunawarritji. She grew up, walked and hunted primarily around Punmu, Kunawarritji, and Kun Kun, and as a young woman traveled up and down large tracts of the 1850km long Canning Stock Route, where she and her husband met and walked with cattle drovers. In 1963 Bugai’s family met the surveyor Len Beadell, who was then grading roads for the Woomera Missile Testing Range. He gave the family flour, which Bugai was able to use to show her relatives how to cook a simple damper (flatbread). Bugai had herself been taught how to bake with flour during her earlier interactions with drovers in her travels on the Stock Route.

NGAMARU BIDU

Ngamaru was born at Martilirri (Well 22 on the Canning Stock Route), the eldest of four siblings. Her mother came from Wikirri and her father from Pitu. As a child, Ngamaru walked around with her family, moving from water source to water source dependent on the seasonal rain cycles. Ngamaru saw government people for the first time near Wirnukurnu rockhole. Ngamaru, ran away with Mitchell and Teddy Biljabu ran away from them as quickly as they could, eluding their pursuit. Later, they met with Wokka Taylor, who shared with them the sugar, bananas, and apples he had been given by the whitefellas. Not realizing the fruit could be eaten raw, they cooked it until it was burned, and spat the fruit out upon tasting it.

JAKAYU BILJABU

Jakayu was born near Pitu, east of Well 25, and grew up in Manyjilyjarra Country around Kunawarritji, Wikirri, Rarrki, Wantili, Nyilangkurr and Nyinyari. Jakayu’s early contact with whitefella’s occurred at wells along the Canning Stock Route when occasionally Drovers would slaughter a bullock and share the meat with her family. Despite these interactions, Jakayu’s father was very wary of the Europeans who traveled along the route in increasing numbers, having heard of the at times violent and cruel methods employed by Alfred Canning’s group when the Stock Route was chartered. As such, Jakayu’s family waited longer than most pujiman (desert dwellers) before leaving their traditional life.

JUDITH ANYA SAMSON

Anya is the granddaughter of Dadda Samson and Yanjimi (Peter) Rowlands, both senior Martu artists. She was born in Port Hedland and has lived most of her life in Jigalong. Any was raised by her grandparents Dadda and Yanjimi, as her parents passed away when she was very young. Dadda has taught Anya to paint; she has passed stories onto Anya for painting. Anya frequently travels with Dadda to her country around Jigalong, Puntawarri and the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the subject of many of her paintings. Anya has exhibited in most Martumili Artists' exhibitions in recent years. Her work has been acquired by the Art Gallery of Queensland (GOMA) and the Na􀆟onal Museum of Australia. In 2011, Anya traveled to the United States of America with other Martu artists for the exhibition "Waru" at the Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University.

NORA NUNGABAR

Nora Nungabar was born near Lipuru, also known as Well 37 on the Canning Stock Route and remembers her mother looking after her in a hollow in the side of a sand hill. She grew up in the country that became Wells 33-38 on the Canning Stock Route. As a young woman, she traveled north with the drovers to Balgo where she settled and raised a family. She eventually relocated to her homelands at Kunawarritji, however, continues to travel regularly between Kunawarritji, Balgo, and Mulan today. She paints for both Warlayirti and Martumili Artists and many younger artists describe having learned to paint by watching her example. She is a custodian of a great deal of cultural knowledge about the Kunawarritji area, some of which is referred to in her paintings.